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By Root 1184 0

"Orphism was steeped in sacramentalism, which flooded the later Mysteries and flowed into Christianity. Salvation was by sacrament, by initiatory rites, and by an esoteric doctrine. . . . Orphism was the most potent solvent ever introduced into Greek religious life ... [T]he Orphics sowed the seeds of distrust toward the national and hereditary principle in religion, and made the salvation of the individual soul of first importance. In this way Orphism had enormous influence upon the subsequent history of religion." . . . Orphism became one of the most serious rivals of Christianity in the first few centuries A.D., until the church devised ways to identify the Orphic savior with Christ.... The Orphic Gospel was preached throughout the Mediterranean world for at least twelve centuries. It contributed much to Christian ideology . . . The Orphic revelation was virtually indistinguishable from the Christian one . . . 36

Thus Orphism was what could be called a "salvation cult," at the head of which was the savior, "IES." Orpheus has also been identified with Krishna37 and with Horus, or Orus, as "Orpheus" could be translated as "voice of Or," "Or," appropriately, meaning "light" in Hebrew.

Furthermore, it was said of Apollonius that he had been given his master Pythagoras's travel journals, which he followed such that he gained access to the secret brotherhoods in the east. Upon his return, he follows virtually the same route as Orpheus and Paul, including passing through Samothrace several times. It would seem, therefore, that Apollonius was deliberately attempting to reproduce Orpheus's mythical teaching route.

John the Baptist/Baptizer

We have already seen that John the Baptist or Baptizer is a remake of Horus's Baptizer, Anup, both of whom lost their heads, among other similarities. There are varied astrotheological interpretations of John/Anup the Baptist/Baptizer, as is to be expected, since the mythos was ever-changing and evolving. As stated earlier, John the Baptist was the sign of Aquarius, into which the sun moves and is "baptized" after advancing to the "age" of 30°. As Walker relates:

Medieval monks tried to Christianize the zodiac as they Christianized everything else, by renaming it the Corona seu Circulus Sanctorum Apostolorum: the Crown of the Circle of the Holy Apostles. They placed John the Baptist at the position of Aquarius, to finish off the circle.38

The Baptist's identity is also revealed by Goodman:

... the greatest denouement awaits the investigator who makes use of the Julian calendar in the Roman Catholic calendar of Saints in connection with the large zodiac. He will find that the death of John the Baptist is fixed on August 29th. On that day, a specially bright star, representing the head of the constellation Aquarius, rises whilst the rest of his body is below the horizon, at exactly the same time as the sun sets in Leo (the kingly sign representing Herod). Thus the latter beheads John, because John is associated with Aquarius, and the horizon cuts off the head of Aquariust39

In addition, eastern texts depict solar radiation as the "perpetual beheading of the sun."

As to the role of the Baptist in the Egyptian version of the mythos, Massey says:

Anup was the crier of the way and guide through the wilderness of An, the black land. John's is the voice of one crying in the wilderness ... John was decapitated by the monster Herod, and Anup is portrayed as headless in the planisphere just over the Waterman. . . . The headless Anup is a type of demarcation: a sign of the division of the solstice. The river of the division is the laru-tana or Jordan... This can be seen in the planisphere, with the beheaded Anup as the original John.40

Massey further elaborates:

In the Zodiac of Denderah we see the figure of Anup portrayed with his head cut off; and I doubt not that the decapitated Aan or Anup is the prototype of the Gospel John who was above the river of the Waterman, the Greek Eridanus, Egyptian larutana, the Hebrew Jordan ... 41

The biblical story of John's birth is also an aspect of